Actable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Capable of being acted upon or performed, especially in a theatrical or practical sense
2. Able to be effectively carried out or portrayed in action or performance
3. Suitable or possible to be acted out or realized through doing

Etymology: "Actable" is a plain English formation: the verb "act" with the suffix "-able," which means "capable of being" or "fit to be." The verb "act" traces back through Middle English "acte" to Old French "act" and Latin "āctus," a past-participle form of "agere," meaning "to drive, do, or carry out." That Latin root gave English a large family of words built around the idea of doing something in practice. The suffix has its own separate path. It descends from Latin "-ābilis," which passed through Old French "-able" into Middle English, where it became a productive way to coin adjectives from verbs. Speakers could attach it to almost any verb to describe what could be done to or accomplished by something, so "actable" joins words like "readable" and "washable" in following that pattern.